Dispute resolution
Unfortunately, when trading on credit, there will be times when customers raise disputes and refuse to pay invoices.
This can be an extremely frustrating and time-consuming problem for businesses to deal with. But at Hilton-Baird Collection Services, we are highly skilled at dealing with difficult customers and work quickly to settle disputes and minimise the impact of late payment on cash flow.
Our client completed maintenance work on some properties in 2013 but the customer failed to pay for the services. Despite their best efforts to liaise with the customer for payment, the £2,500 owed was still unpaid six months later, prompting the company to contact us for assistance.
Upon instruction we worked quickly to contact the customer, ascertain the reasons behind the delay and explain their obligations to pay the outstanding sum.
Initially the customer claimed that our client had not completed the work that had been invoiced for, but soon raised disputes on the work completed and claimed that they had to make good the work completed by our client at their own expense.
At Hilton-Baird we are strong advocates of using mediation tactics in order to resolve disputes, but recognise that, in particularly difficult situations, the legal process is the only option to deliver the right result. Following further communication with the customer in a bid to resolve the dispute, it soon became clear that a firmer approach was needed to persuade them to settle the outstanding debt.
So, on our client’s instruction, a Money Claim was issued against the debtor. This was initially defended and the customer raised a counterclaim for the cost of repairing the alleged faulty workmanship. Happy that our client had a strong case, however, we assisted with the preparation and filing of the Court documentation and witness statements, removing the time and resource burden from our client.
And after the customer failed to file their supporting documentation and witness statements, leading to the defence being dismissed by the court, they contacted us to settle the invoice balance with statutory interest, statutory compensation and court fees on top.
If you’re tired of waiting to get paid look no further. Contact us today to find out how our award-winning services can help you, or get a quick quote to find out what we’d charge should we successfully recover your unpaid invoices.
